Donegal Racing announced Monday that its multiple Grade I winner Dullahan has been retired from racing due to a tendon injury.

Bred in Kentucky by Phil and Judy Needham and Bena Halecky, Dullahan earned each of his three wins from 18 career starts in Grade I company over synthetic surfaces. The son of Even the Score captured the 2011 edition of the Grade I Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland and went on to claim the Grade I Blue Grass Stakes and Grade I Pacific Classic against older horses at Del Mar during his 3-year-old season.

“Dullahan is the most spectacular looking horse Donegal has ever campaigned and that takes in some territory,” Donegal Managing partner Jerry Crawford said in a release. “Not many horses win three Grade I’s for their owners but that is what Dullahan did. In my eyes he is from a similar mode of stallions like Tiznow, Candy Ride, Indian Charlie, or Harlan’s Holiday as all of them were great race horses whose sires weren’t perceived to be commercial at the time of their retirement. We believe that Dullahan has many attributes equipped to make him an excellent sire”.

Dullahan is out of Smart Strike mare Mining My Own, making him a half-brother to 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird. He was conditioned by Eclipse Award winning trainer Dale Romans throughout his career and retires with $1,735,901 in career earnings.

“I don’t even think we ever got to see him at his very best, he might have been the most talented colt I ever trained,” Romans said.

Dullahan is being shipped to WinStar Farm in Lexington where he will have some rehab work done by Richard Budge and his team. Dullahan will also be available for inspection there as stud plans are worked out in the coming weeks.

Alicia Wincze Hughes is the turf writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader. She started riding at age 8 and was a four-year member of the Pace University equestrian team.